Saturday, July 16, 2011

WORKING HARD OR HARDLY WORKING?

Me, myself, I'm working hard! ha ha Suzanne McDermott's online class is going well and I'm getting in the mood for drawing and sketching and seeing and having fun with it. I really needed this push. We are working in charcoal, graphite, water soluble graphite and pen and ink! Whew!! And Suzanne's critiques are spot on - not too harsh but definitely not whimpy, she tells it like it is and points out those things you didn't even see! Love it! It's just what I need right now.

I'm also still going through the landscape book by Catherine Gill; and have pulled out an older landscape book (The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook: Landscapes) by Gordon MacKenzie that looks very interesting. I've had it around a long time. Apparently, this NEED to paint landscapes comes and goes with me.

However, I'm not going to push myself. I think I may just start with one of his paintings in the book and then come up with something, just a study for myself, that bears a close resemblance to a landscape :) No more pressure or worries - just paint on paper (in my little Arches travel watercolor pad) and let it be. Here's the first one...

Just a little bit of paint on my 6 x 10 Carnet de Voyage Travel Book by Arches - a great thing to take on vacations! (Although it does have that old cow hooves smell that older Arches paper has.)

This one, I'm calling The Dark Green Blues. And, yes, I could go back in with a bit of darker green-blue-black for a few of those trees...we'll see if I do that or let sleeping does lie. Perhaps leaving a painting is really what I need to learn?

Your trees are wonderful, and I know the feeling about wanting to add darks, but some paintings just don't need it, this one doesn't, its great. Rather do another in a similar style and add darks to that.

Oh, gosh, I should have read ALL of these posts before I went back in and darkened some tree trunks on this one! ha ha I wasn't on the computer much yesterday at all so that's my excuse. Thanks for all your comments on this one - I'm glad to find you all liked it just as it was which tells me that leaving a painting alone is often the best thing to do for it - I will learn that someday!

Anonymous - well, you KNOW what I mean! ha ha People always say older Arches paper has a musty, funky smell that is not that pleasant - a rancher's wife said her husband told her it smelled like old cow hooves so I guess he knows! ha ha

I began my journey with watercolor painting in April 2003, taking weekly lessons for six years before I realized I needed to move on to explore on my own.

I admire the work of so many artists; my sidebar is full of artists who inspire me every day. I also love the freedom of Shirley Trevena, the delicate touch of Ted Nuttall and Hazel Soan, and the power of Mary Whyte. I enjoy visiting art blogs, reading art magazines and watching art DVDs to further my art education and to simply enjoy the beauty that is being created around the world in watermedia these days.

"If you have a burning desire to create art, you will lean into the flame of that desire, rather than shy away from it. You may get burned, or you may enjoy the glowing warmth of success. Whatever the outcome, you will not be able to withstand the pull to create something meaningful, beautiful, and lasting."